A few weeks back I decided to create a school-wide music video as part of an end-of-year/school-spirit project. Here is the finished project, featuring the students and staff, of our K-12 school! I hope this makes your day a little more happy 🙂
2014-2015 Teaching Schedule
It feels like I am in a time-warp, as I vividly remember writing this post last year when I got my teaching schedule for my VERY FIRST year as a teacher. Somehow, it has been over a year since that time… oh, where did the time go!? I am now almost finished up my first year at “S-School” and I have gotten my teaching schedule for next year. I am happy to announce that I will get to remain as the Grade 8 homeroom teacher (although I will still have classes ranging from Grade 8 to Grade… Read More
6 Steps For Creating Exams?
Deep breathe in..1..2..3.. Deep breathe out..1..2..3.. Feel that? That is the sound of one relaxed teacher. One relaxed teacher who just put the finishing touches on the last of her final exams! A relaxing planning spot can solve everything! After a full semester, or even a full year, of activities, experiences, and assessments, it is hard to not feel nervous about preparing a final exam that somehow encompasses all of that in a 2 hour event. Personally, I do not believe formalized, traditional, exams are a good assessment technique and resent the fact that the set-up of them… Read More
Diversity from A-Z! Chapter 1 of U.D.L
To help us work towards our school goal of purposefully implementing the Universal Design for Learning approach to our formal planning (sometimes referred to as “Backwards by Design”, “Understanding by Design”, or “Planning With The End in Mind), my principal has provided our staff with a copy of Dr. Jennifer Katz‘s book, Teaching to Diversity: The Three-Block Model of Universal Design for Learning. As I make my way through the book, I will be summarizing my learning as a means of organizing my thoughts and getting clarification on particular ideas. Teaching to Diversity Cover. (Accessed 2014). Uploaded to Amazon; Portage& Main Press. … Read More
7 Chapters To a Better Understanding of U.D.L
One of our school goals this year is to purposefully implement the Universal Design for Learning approach to our formal planning. Sometimes referred to as “Backwards by Design”, “Understanding by Design”, or “Planning With The End in Mind”, the Universal Design for Learning is a three-block model designed by Dr. Jennifer Katz at the University of Manitoba. Design. (2011). Uploaded to Tach @ Riverdale by Meg Krause. Available online at: http://blogs.riverdale.edu/techintegration/2011/11/26/understanding-by-design-the-backward-design-model/ Being fresh out of my B.Ed, the Backwards-by-Design method is what we were exclusively taught in our Assessment & Evaluation classes and is something that… Read More
Parent-Teacher Interviews Round Two
On Monday of this week our second round of report cards went home and officially kicked-off spring Parent-Teacher Interview week. Being that we are a K-12 school, our K-7 teachers scheduled and organized their own meetings which ran throughout the week. In the 8-12 end, our school secretary scheduled our meetings for us which were primarily held on Thursday after school and Friday during school-hours (there were no classes on Friday). Compared to the 30+ interviews I had first semester, this round was a breeze with only 20. I think last semester I had a lot of interviews because… Read More
My First Science Fair
On Friday my Grade 8 class held their first Science Fair after working diligently over the past three weeks. After a very long first unit on Cells & Systems (I was getting used to teaching Science!) we moved on to our unit on Fluids at the start of January. As a summative assessment, I decided to have my students organize, plan, and administer individual science experiments that would then be showcased with a Science Fair (an event that our school does not formally have). Not only would this serve as a summative assessment for our unit, but it would also… Read More
End of Term One Reflections & A Room Revamp
Thursday marked the last day of semester one in our division and it is pretty crazy to think that I have already completed HALF of my first year of teaching. When I look back at it I feel like I did A LOT but I also feel like it went by really, REALLY quickly. Friday was an administration day that we utilized to work on marking exams and completing report cards. Lucky for me, I marked ALL of my exams on the day they were written (Wednesday) so I was able to work on report card comments and… Read More
2 Stars & a Wish: Week 14
This past week represented my shortest teaching week this year as I was away both Tuesday and Wednesday at a math conference. While I enjoyed the PD opportunity, and learnt a lot of effective strategies, it is a lot of work to be away from your classroom for so long. I came back to what felt like chaos since my room was no longer organized to my expectations (I may be a tad OCD) and not all of my students behaved the way they do while I am present. I had several students deviate from routines and fail to hand-in… Read More
2 Stars & a Wish: Week 13
Tis’ the season! December is upon us and there is only 15 teaching days left until Christmas holidays. Technically it is even less since I am away at a conference 2 days this week and we have some spirit activities in the last week that will take away from class time. Again I fell off the reflection-bandwagon due to the craziness that is report cards & parent-teach interviews but I am committed to keeping with this! Two things that I think went well this week are: 1) Incorporating Student Suggestions in My Grade 10 Class– Shortly after report cards… Read More